Miami Ink


Miami Ink is an American reality show on TLC that follows the events that took place at a tattoo shop in Miami Beach, Florida. The show premiered in July 2005 and finished broadcasting its sixth and final season in 2008. The show led to several spin-offs, including the shows LA Ink, London Ink, NY Ink, and Madrid Ink, most of which were also broadcast on TLC.

History

The shop, which opened in 2004 was called 305 Ink before the show started. Later changed to Love Hate Tattoo, it is co-owned by tattoo artists Ami James and Chris Nunez, and also features artists Chris Garver, Darren Brass, Luke Wessman, Morgan Pennypacker, Tim Hendricks and Yoji Harada. Kat Von D first joined the shop during the first season while Brass had an injured arm. She then returned as a full-time crew member for three seasons, after which she returned to Los Angeles and landed her own Miami Ink spin-off entitled LA Ink which premiered in August 2007. The first 6 episodes of Miami Ink were directed by David Roma, an influential member of creating the format.
Each episode featured a number of customers along with their backstories and motivations for choosing their tattoos. In addition, there was some focus on the personal lives of the artists. Most of the episodes are narrated by James, with Nunez occasionally filling in. The main musical theme for the show is "Funky Kingston" by Toots & the Maytals. The show has on occasion featured such guests as Paul Teutul Sr. from American Chopper.
The original Miami Ink shop became a retail shop for the clothing line DeVille, but James and Nunez have opened a bigger tattoo shop, called Love Hate Tattoo, next door.

''NY Ink''

Since Miami Ink went off air, Ami moved to New York City in 2011 to fulfill his dream of opening a tattoo studio there, called the Wooster St. Social Club. Ami teamed up again with David Roma and Charlie Corwin to detail the proceedings in the shop on NY Ink, which premiered June 2, 2011 on TLC.

International screenings

Miami Ink has been shown mainly on channels of the Discovery Network, including Discovery Real Time, the Discovery Channel, DMAX, Discovery Travel and Living and TLC. It has also been broadcast by Viasat 4, TV6, TV3+, Numéro 23 and Jim.

Celebrity customers

The following celebrities have appeared on Miami Ink:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6